On the one hand, Dr Laura Corbit, senior lecturer from the University of Sydney's Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory, told Coach that there is evidence that sugar sparks a "reward" response in the brain. This is what causes sugar cravings.

"Hunters and gatherers walking through the savannah would have been lucky to find food … when you get something good, the brain should tell you, 'This is good, take it again'," she explains.

"Those events were once relatively rare [but] now we have the option to buy foods that are incredibly dense in calories and refined sugars."

Dr Corbit says people often have habits around sugar consumption – like sugar cravings – where they expect to have it at the same time each day. This is similar to a sugar addiction, since they require a lot of commitment to break.

"Controlling your sugar intake may become more difficult the more sugar you've had," she says.

"It's really easy to fall back into old behavioural patterns – it takes effort to do something different and to maintain that."

Dr Corbit says there is some evidence of habits leading to adaptation of the dopamine system and the opioid system, but she says it's probably a long bow to suggest that sugar cravings could be addictive like a drug.

"I think heroin is a much more dangerous substance than sugar – both in terms of how quickly you get to health problems and the magnitude of health problems you're likely to experience," she points out.

The American Psychiatric Institute's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual lists 11 criteria used to diagnose mental health and substance use disorders, which include things like using despite negative consequences.

"It could be problems with your social life or your ability to do your job or ongoing health problems," Dr Corbit explains.

"There's not really any evidence that people give up their social or work responsibilities because of sugar. If you're hungover you might miss a day of work, but if you ate too much sugar, it doesn't typically interfere with your ability to turn up the next day."

Sugar addiction criteria would also include things like tolerance, withdrawal and cravings.

"Craving maybe applies to sweets, but I don't think there is evidence that you experience a withdrawal syndrome from sugar the way you would if you used heroin then stopped using it," Dr Corbit points out.

She doesn't like using the phrase “sugar addiction” because it almost assumes that consumption of sugar is beyond people's control.

Dr Tracy Burrows, University of Newcastle senior lecturer in nutrition and dietetics, told Coach that defining a sugar craving is also tricky because it's rarely straight sugar that people crave – there are often fats or other ingredients as well.

"When you ask people what they crave, it's not a teaspoon of sugar – it might be a block of chocolate or jelly beans, so it's complicated," she says.

"People don't eat individual nutrients, we eat [whole] foods. Sugar could be addictive but it could be as addictive as fats and salt."

Do you feel like you have a sugar addiction?

There is no accurate sugar addiction test to tell if you have sugar problem. However, if your sugar intake is feeling out of control, Dr Burrows suggests seeing a dietitian to talk about the issues you're having with sugar cravings.

"The first step might be working out which food which may be causing an issue," she says.

Take comfort in the fact Dr Corbit says that habits can be broken.

"Some of the neural changes seem to go back to a more normal state," she says.

"There's hope that if you can maintain a diet long enough, your brain will go back to a more normal state and you'll struggle less to control your behaviour."

Some would argue that sugar and carbohydrates are essential to survival and therefore it's natural for us to crave them, but Dr Corbit says the way we choose to fulfil our carbohydrate requirements is the key factor.

"You can get sugar without it being from a chocolate bar – you can have an apple that's sweet," she says.

"Or if you have that chocolate bar, just make sure you don't do it day in, day out."